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Ramseur July 4-5, The "Shifty" Powers Memorial Appleseed!

Started by boltgun71, July 06, 2009, 06:47:06 PM

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boltgun71

Another great Appleseed at the RWVA home range is in the books!  I can't think of a better way to spend Independence Day than at a Appleseed with your fellow passionate countrymen.   

This weekends Appleseed was kicked off in honor of Darrell "Shifty" Powers, a WWII veteran who passed away on June 17, 2009.  "Shifty" was a member of the famed Easy Co, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, the same unit depicted in the Band of Brothers series.  He participated in every battle the unit was involved in, including the D-Day airborne drop and the Battle of the Bulge.  He was known as the best shot in the whole company and his fellow soldiers relied heavily on his marksmanship ability.  This great American hero passed away with little notice or mention, at a time when everyone knew Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and Farrah Fawcett had died.  This hero who had fought and sacrificed so much for his country was almost replaced by entertainers in our society.  Instead Appleseed remembered and honored this great man this Fourth of July!

Saturday morning brought us 21 eager Appleseeders waiting to get submerged in history and marksmanship.  We opened up for the firehouse of information on them and they soaked it all right in.  Saturday ended with several shooters knocking on the door, but no Rifleman.  That would change the next day though.  Saturdays ending Redcoat brought us 8x as many 200yd shooters then we began the morning with and more than triple the amount of "headshots".  Way to go everyone.

We had 10 return shooters on Sunday and after a refresher of the previous day's lessons, the AQT grinder was on!  The result, 5 new Rifleman!  A 50% Rifleman rate for one day's worth of shooters, one of the highest I have ever seen.  Congratulations to James T., Lynn R., Matt H., Matt S., and Ian P.  A special thank you goes out to Lynn for stepping up and taking a orange hat to join the instructor corps as well.

Thank you to everyone, shooters and instructors alike, that came out and made this weekend a huge success.  I speak for all the instructors when I say it was our pleasure to come out and teach our fellow Americans history and marksmanship.

Feel free to add your comments and I saw a few pictures being taken this weekend.  Please share'em! 

Rhodes


It is more fitting for a man to be mourned by the few that appreciated his life than the many who appreciate his death.


The finest thing a man can do is hold to the wisdom his forefathers shed blood to teach us. Fear and Trust in God, Respect for American ideals and heritage, and always strive to be a better Rifleman. All other things flow from these.

jmdavis

I can't think of a better way to have spent my Independence Day (and weekend) than instructing at the Ramseur Appleseed. I also know of no better way to honor the memory of "Shifty" Powers. We made Riflemen to honor a Rifleman. I am proud to have been there.
"If a man does his best, what else is there?"  - General George S. Patton Jr

  ...We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
  For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
  Shall be my brother...-Shakespeare, Henry V
 

"There's a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Your body can't go where your mind hasn't been."
- Alex Arrieta 1995 NTI Winner

RIP

Gentlemen,

I've joined the forum now, and thanks to Boltgun for the congratulations, it took some work and good instruction.

To make this into a real AAR: This Appleseed shoot was well put together, the drills progressed logically and the lessons were well planned and coordinated. Each lesson built on the one preceding it and was important for the one following it. The advanced riflery class was a great consolidation  and summarization of concepts that few are familiar with into easy to apply rules of thumb. The downsides: classes were generally longer than they needed to be, that is there was some repetition of concepts that didn't need repetition. A quick rehearsal or two might help shake this out. The plan for an emergency was better understood at this shoot than the last I was at, but I still think we can do better, a specific casualty plan involving who will treat, with what, who will call, how to talk the ambulance or bird on and, how to mark, where the meeting point for an ambulance or bird is etc. A single gunshot wound will ruin your whole day, and might throw a serious wrench into the works of this organization.

Special thanks to W. for the generosity with ammo and weapon to get me qualified, and to wildman for helping me index my sights.

Happy to be here, and after a deployment looking forward to doing some instructing.
Ian P.
-
R.I.P.
Rifleman, Infantryman and Ponderer

BJ

Many thanks for an unforgettable and most instructive training. I cannot imagine a more meaningful way to spend the 4th of July.  :~






People are not given freedom and
democracy - they take it for themselves. Major General
John Kelly, USMC, January 2009, Al Anbar, IRAQ



"People are not given freedom and
democracy - they take it for themselves."

Major General John Kelly, USMC, January 2009, Al Anbar, IRAQ

Gaurd Duck

My buddy Lyn named a riffle after Shifty and I used it to make Rifleman.

I never knew the Real Shifty, but I think he'd be proud.
試して撮って。

「もぉん・ぁべ」

socalserf

Congratulations to my freind GaurdDuck and all the other new Riflemen!

Fourth of July at Ramseur, what a way to remember those who gave us Liberty.

And thanks for the strory of Shifty, the REAL hero's never get the recognition they deserve, but that is changing thanks to AS.
"we cannot improve what we do not measure."